WELDON — John Hamill’s link to his mother easily fits into your hand. The slim, brown suede autograph book is also the source of mystery and wonder for Hamill.

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For years, he and his late brother, Ronnie, wondered if a signature — Norma Jean — in his mother’s book was that of motion picture legend Marilyn Monroe, another celebrity or perhaps just someone with the same name.

“It’s got my curiosity up,” Hamill said, “I am into history and I want to find out if it is really her signature.”

The story begins with the suede covered autograph book, the title page inside proclaiming the book belongs to Edna Kathryn Byrne with her address and phone number, and dated Dec. 15, 1943.

Byrne was Hamill’s mother. Her nickname was “Baby.” The autograph from Norma Jean said to “To Baby, a lot of good luck.”

Hamill doesn’t know much background on the book. It’s been in his family for years. His mother died in 1960 when Hamill and his brother were very young. His dad, Donald Hamill, was the police chief of Weldon in the 1970s. “We knew of it (the book) back in the 1970s,” he said. “We weren’t allowed to carry it off or handle it.”

From what he pieced together, he said, his mother was well-liked. “I have been told all about her and how good of a person she was,” he said.

In 1959, Hamill and his mother came to stay in Weldon for a short time with his dad’s mother while his father was stationed in Germany. “I was told when my mother left Weldon she knew more people than my grandmother,” he said.

Even though, Hamill and his brother learned about their mother in a second person view, he feels he knows a lot about her character through others. “From what we can determine, nobody had a bad thing to say about her,” he said.

Hamill grew up in Weldon. “I consider Weldon my home and my dad was born here as well,” he said.

His mother grew up in Kentucky and Hamill believed she found out about the Disney filming of the movie, “Davy Crockett and the River Pirates” near her home in 1955.

In the autograph book, Byrne got signatures from the movie’s director and its two stars — Fess Parker and Buddy Ebsen. Parker who lives in Santa Barbara, Calif., is known for his portrayals of Crockett and another legendary frontiersman, Daniel Boone in the movies and television. Ebsen, died in 2003, was a noted character actor who stared as Jed Clampett in the TV classic, “The Beverly Hillbillies,” and in later years as detective Barnaby Jones.

“I was lucky enough that my mom took the time to get the autographs.”

Hamill said family and friends of his mother told him she was very religious and Catholic. “We don’t know if there was a group from the church which provided refreshments or if she decided to go up there on her own,” he said of his mother’s visit to the movie set.

Hamill was able to get in contact with Parker’s assistant to see if Parker could verify the signature or the visit to the movie set.

“There is also another signature of her with LC Shelton,” Hamill added. He has no clue who Shelton is but hopes Parker will be able to provide some clues. “If Mr. Parker does let us know, it will be kind of neat,” he said.

For Hamill, it is fascinating piece of history to see their signatures. “You are actually holding a piece of paper a famous person signed,” he said. “To know I am actually holding the autograph of someone I watched on TV as a young child.”

Hamill is also seeking to confirm who Norma Jean really was.

Before his brother died last year, they discussed trying to find out if the signature is real. “We’ve sent a scanned copy of the autograph to a company in Texas to verify the signature,” he said. “We are waiting to hear something.” The signature could also be of a country music singer named Norma Jean Beasler, he said.

He doesn’t know if he would sell the book since it has been in his family for such a long time. “It is kind of sentimental to me because it was my mother’s autograph book.”

For now Hamill has the book tucked away safely and as he ponders his mother’s keepsake he waits patiently for the book’s next chapter — authenticity — to unfold.